Saturday, September 24, 2016

The Evolution of Religion and Politics from Oppression to Freedom

Rudy
Barnes, Jr.

If a religious nation takes freedom and democracy for granted, it does so at its peril. Before the Treaty of
Westphalia in 1648 opened the door of a religious world to the secular libertarian values of the
Enlightenment, the Christian church opposed freedom and democracy with the oppressive
dictates of the divine right to rule.
And political Islam, or Islamism, continues to dictate religious and
political oppression in Islamic cultures today.

De oppresso liber—to liberate from oppression—is from the Hebrew Bible (Isaiah
61:1-2), and Jesus cited that passage in speaking of his own mission (Luke
14:16-21). But it would be 1,800 years
before political freedom and democracy defined politics, and then only in part
of the world. And today religious fundamentalists
still consider God the absolute sovereign, with their ancient scriptures and
laws the immutable word of God that defines truth in religion and politics.

The
Enlightenment introduced the social contract theory that supports the
sovereignty of man over God, with democracy and libertarian human rights that
begin with the freedoms of religion and speech.
Those libertarian priorities are provided in our Constitution’s Bill of
Rights and represent our foundational values, and they are shared with Europeans. But most Muslims in Islamic nations favor the
imposition of Islamic laws (shari’a) that deny fundamental freedoms.

Why
is that important? Because when religion
dictates politics, it threatens the political status quo in an increasingly pluralistic world. And as long as Islam enforces apostasy and
blasphemy laws that oppose the fundamental freedoms of religion and speech, Muslims
will be suspect in libertarian democracies.
Such conflicting religious and political concepts of freedom and human
rights can only lead to more religious discrimination, hatred and violence.

Rana
Elmir has noted the plight of Muslim women who wear the distinctive hijab in
America and Europe. They are treated as
both villains and victims--villains as Muslims who are associated with radical
Islamist terrorism, and victims as Muslim women. Civil rights laws can protect Muslim women against
unlawful discrimination, but not against prejudice and hate.

One
way to minimize the problem is for Muslim women to forego wearing the hijab,
but the long-range solution is for Islam to evolve into a progressive religion of
peace and justice compatible with libertarian values. Muslims can make that happen by treating
shari’a as a voluntary code of morality rather than enforcing it as law in
Islamic cultures.

Freedom
and democracy cannot coexist with oppressive and immutable religious laws. When mainstream Islam embraces democracy,
along with human rights that begin with the freedoms of religion and speech and
the rule of secular law, it will undermine the legitimacy of Islamist
terrorists like al Qaeda and ISIS and change the image of Islam worldwide; but
polls indicate that most Muslims in Islamic nations continue to favor shari’a
as their rule of law.

There
is no danger of Islam undermining freedom in libertarian democracies. Judaism and Christianity have conformed their
religious doctrines to democracy, human rights and the secular rule of law, and
most Muslims in libertarian democracies prefer freedom and democracy to the
enforcement of shari’a. But democracy,
human rights and the secular rule of law remain constrained in Islamic nations
where shari’a is the rule of law.

Globalization
has made the world smaller and more pluralistic, and Islam is projected to gain
influence as the world’s largest religion by the end of the century. And until mainstream Islam embraces those
fundamental freedoms at the foundation of libertarian democracy there will be continuing
religious conflict that fosters religious discrimination and threatens world
peace.

What can we do about the
problem? Only Muslims can determine the
future of Islam, but the rest of us can encourage and support progressive
Muslims who are promoting a form of Islam compatible with human rights that
begin with the freedoms of religion and speech.
To that end Americans need to remind their leaders that our foreign
policy is supposed to promote human rights and religious freedom overseas, even
if we ignore it in practice.

The evolution of religion and
politics will continue to shape the projection of freedom and democracy in the
world for the foreseeable future—for good or bad.For good, if mainstream Islam evolves to be compatible
with libertarian democracy, human rights and the secular rule of law; or for
bad, if Islamism continues to promote exclusivist religious doctrines and enforce
oppressive religious laws, like those that make apostasy and blasphemy crimes.